In Pittsburgh, Delany began his efforts to advance the condition of African Americans. Between 1843 and 1847 he developed a black-nationalist perspective in the columns of his weekly newspaper, the Mystery. He called for the creation of separate black institutions and advocated black migration beyond the borders of the United States. Read the Entry »

It is difficult to exaggerate the dominance of the Democratic Party in South Carolina during the first fifty years of the twentieth century. In every presidential election except that of 1948, the Democratic candidate received the state’s electoral votes. Read the Entry »

By the early twenty-first century, all members of the town council and the mayor were black. The town is the home of Voorhees College, a predominantly black institution that was founded in 1897, and Denmark Technical College, which evolved from a trade school established in 1948. Read the Entry »

Dennis came to statewide attention in 1954 when—as a member of the State Democratic Party Executive Committee—he offered the motion to make Senator Edgar Brown the party’s candidate for the U.S. Senate after the unexpected death of the incumbent Burnet Maybank. Read the Entry »

Dent’s involvement in ATMI, as a member of the Commission on an All-Volunteer Army, and as a supporter of President Richard Nixon during his second presidential election gained him the recognition of the Nixon administration. Read the Entry »

He was a major influence in Thurmond’s switch to the Republican Party in 1964 and in shaping what became the Republican “Southern strategy,” a racial appeal to the segregationist inclinations of southern whites. Read the Entry »